Fingernails on Blackboard - Possible Explanation(amasci.com)
amasci.com
Fingernails on Blackboard - Possible Explanation
http://amasci.com/amateur/screet.html
7 comments
Summary: his theory is that it is similar to the sound of you damaging your teeth, since teeth have no nerve endings, the sound of them being damaged makes you cringe.
And he surmises that the sense of hearing evolved from the need to protect teeth. Seems that nerve endings in teeth would have been more likely to evolve.
More nerve endings in teeth mean it's harder to eat if you get decay or are eating something hard. Given the state of dental hygiene back in the day, it makes some sense.
Just reading that article made me cringe. He may be right, but I couldn't finish it to be sure.
I couldn't even click on the link. Ugh.
"It's the sound of body damage; but it's a particular type of body damage for which there is no pain ...yet no healing."
That's not actually true. Teeth do heal - which hurts his theory, except that while they do heal, they don't do it well, so there could be something to it.
That's not actually true. Teeth do heal - which hurts his theory, except that while they do heal, they don't do it well, so there could be something to it.
I suppose we can look forward to new class of crowd suppression, area denial weapons now.
The sound has never bothered me at all.